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Researchers in Seattle revealed last year that
captured crows remember the face of their abductor. Even
though years had passed since they saw the threatening face, the
crows in the experiment would taunt their captor and dive-bomb
him, suggesting the birds held tightly to a negative association.

Now the researchers' follow-up study shows that the
birds' brains light up much like the human mind when they see
a face they know.

"The regions of the crow brain that work together are not unlike
those that work together in mammals, including humans," lead
researcher John Marzluff, of the University of Washington, said
in a statement from the school. "These regions were suspected to
work in birds but not documented until now."

In the study, 12 male adult crows were captured by researchers
who were all wearing one type of mask, referred to in the study
as the threatening face. Then during four weeks of captivity, the
birds were fed by people wearing a different mask. Though both
disguises had neutral expressions, this mask was referred to ask
the caring face.

To see what was going on in the birds' brains when they saw both
faces, the researchers injected a glucose fluid into the bodies
of fully alert crows. The crows were then put in the presence of
someone wearing either the threatening or caring mask for about
15 minutes before the birds were sedated and given a brain scan.
[ Pretty
Bird: Images of a Clever Parrot ]

The fluid revealed which parts of their brains were most active
around a certain mask-wearer. Marzluff said it appears the
smart birds have a region of their brain that is analogous to
the amygdala of mammals.

"The amygdala is the region of the vertebrate brain where
negative associations are stored as memories," he said in the
statement. "Previous work primarily concerned its function in
mammals, while our work shows that a similar system is at work in
birds."

The study, detailed this week in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, suggests that caretakers might be able to
reduce the stress of captive animals by treating them well and
consistently.

"By feeding and caring for birds in captivity their brain
activity suggests that the birds view their keepers as valued
social partners, rather than animals that must be feared,"
Marzluff said.

He added that the findings might even be used to make better
behaved crows, suggesting that the birds could be manipulated to
associate eating a rare species with a negative experience to
train them to avoid a particular prey.